Garden Share Collective : July 2014

on July 7, 2014

Welcome to another round of the Garden Share Collective. I am happy to report that the GSC is now one year old, we started off with only seven people’s gardens and now we are a family of forty from around the globe. This coming year I have changed how you will view posts about other gardens. At the bottom of this post will be a photo grid of other gardens, if you have something to share just click on the submit button below it.

Do you like the size of the rhubarb leaf in my garden. I have chopped the large leaves out to encourage the crowns to grow stronger and thicker as I grew them from seed earlier this year. You can see how much the rhubarb has grown in a month below. We had a total of 16.5mm of rain last month its nothing to gloat about at all. However I have had a tank full of water to keep the soil moist. The weather has really been trying with strong drying winds, cold nights and the odd warm day with not much rain. Not the best growing conditions. This month I have also been struggling with a plague of aphids and disease – bean mosaic. So things have been getting pulled out of the garden all over the place and the veggies have slowed their growth.

The days will soon start to get longer again and summer will be on our door step in no time I am sure.

Last month I took a photo of our broadbeans in hopes that they might start producing. Well they did – one lousy bean, can you believe it. I have heard that they dont like nitrogen rich soil, since this is what you are usually aiming for when growing leafy greens I am not sure what to do to make the soil less nitrogen rich. The cool thing too is that the sweet potato growing in among the broadbeans is also doing really well.

Its amazing what water and fertilizer can do for a garden. Even with a lack of rain, you can see the difference in growth in our bottom bed. I have watered the garden every two or so days and fertilized once at the start of the month with dynamic lifter type stuff. Also sprayed with dipel to keep the cabbage month down. As they do love brassica’s. Also turns out we planted a lot more cabbage than broccoli as you can tell by the photos.

Grosse Lisse – seriously one of the most prolific tomato harvests we have had from one plant. Also the bugs have seemed to miss this tomato plant.

Snowpeas looking healthy, we are now picking over 1 kilo a week from our plants.

Darn aphids. If you can see the tiny grey/black looking things on the flower of the broccoli, well these culprits are what is damaging my garden this winter. They came in their millions and have decreased in numbers over the past week and a half as the lady beetle population has gotten bigger. I have tried to keep on top of spraying them too – I used eco-oil. Still we have them and they brought a disease with them. Bean mosiac, which is a virus that makes the leaves of either bush or climbing bean yellowy then goes hard and brown. It also makes the beans deformed and tougher which is not pleasant to eat. So I saved only one row of beans which don’t have the disease and hope like hell that all the new ones that have come up don’t get it either.

The strawberries have put out their first flower. The runners are slowly getting bigger and stronger however I noticed that they have black spots which is no doubt from watering the leaves and leaving them overnight. Must check it though at some point but all the new foliage is looking really good and healthy. I am just stoked to see a flower and who knows I might even get a strawberry before the crows take them.

PLANTING: This week I am hoping to plant out two or three trays of seeds for our next round of planting at the end of July start of August. I will be sowing – cucumbers, zucchini’s eggplants, peppers, more beans, silverbeet, beetroot, cabbages and a sneaky round of broccoli.

TO DO: I am going to be extending my garden, this month I have to get someone in to turn the soil, so we can start cleaning it up and hilling it for planting. Clean out the last of anything that has any disease or aphid infestation on it and get rid of it. Fertilize and spread compost and get the soil ready for more planting. Its time to start thinking about spring time growing and summer.

16 Comments

The growth in your garden for a Winter month is amazing! What a great harvest of snow peas Lizzie, ours how been pretty slow and for the quantity I planted – disappointing. I hope the bean mosaic has been eradicated for you. Have a great month in the garden.

Hey Lizzie .. so much happening in your garden. Not sure, but I thought broad beans were a nitrogen fixer, so would be bringing in their own supply? I haven’t grown them in ages, although hubby berates me for it. Those aphids did a good job, awful darn things. Thankfully they don’t bother my garden this time of year. I’ll have to tell my peas about your wonderful haul! 🙂

congratualations to us for being a year old! the garden share is a wonderful thing you have organised, lizzy, so amazing to see and read other gardeners around the world. even if, at the time of the year, everyone else makes me green with envy 🙂
because i am envious of your lush snow peas! i would so enjoy a lovely big bowl, barely steamed, a bit of butter … delicious.
but your aphids – little buggers! i hate aphids with a passion, and i’m getting cranky on your behalf. they are such horrid ugly destuctive things.

I had a bit of difficulty with putting in and cropping the thumbnail photo, but it looks like I have got it now! I’m impressed to see how quickly the community is growing. I like the sound of “I’m going to extend my garden…” Good luck with that. There’ll be no stopping you now!

Oh wow, you’re garden is looking amazing for July! I love the before and after shot of the past month. What incredible growth especially for winter!! That’s the northern end lifestyle for ya;) I’m also having a bit of trouble with aphids in my kale although I have noticed that since the frosts have hit they have lessened. The white cabbage moth was also a pain in the butt but they too seem to finally have gone to bed or hopefully died. I loathe those things! Your rhubarb looks amazing. Are you feeding it anything in particular, Lizzie? I can’t seem to get mine happening. It just struggles along. So lovely joining in with your Garden link up. Thanks so much for having me:) xx

How wonderful to see the quick growth in the cabbage bed. I can’t believe the size of your broad beans and gross lisse tomatoes. You must fertilise regularly and spend hours watering. The snow peas are spectacular, plus the huge rhubarb are all growing so well. With the strawberry flowers it is hard to believe you are in winter 😀

What a change only a month makes. Those brassicas have grown amazingly.
My garden too suffers from aphids – pyrethrum is my spray of choice, although I plan to try a soap/chilli spray and see if that works too.
Good luck with the strawberries. I’m sure the birds will be trying for them too though. Hope you beat them to it.

Lizzie, I can totally sympathise with your aphid problem – I’ve had the same here in London. My broad beans were covered in them, and not just the tops (which I’d pinched off). I squirted with water and eco washing liquid which helped a bit; I also hosed them off and squished by hand but they were back within the week. It was a relief to pick the pods and chop the bean plants down! Curious that you only had a few pods – I think that’s more likely lack of water than nitrogen rich soil as the bean roots will fix excess nitrogen back into the soil. It must be so exciting to have the summer and growing months ahead of you, wish it were the same here in the UK!